Ever since Rui Hachimura was implemented into the starting lineup for the Los Angeles Lakers, it resulted in a multitude of wins. For a team looking to make a last-second push for seeding, he is providing an additional scoring punch for L.A.
However, after a successful 5-1 road trip, the final two home games of the regular season did not go as planned for the Lakers. They suffered a loss on Sunday to the Minnesota Timberwolves without both LeBron James and Anthony Davis and then another one against the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday missing Davis again.
Unfortunately, Golden State shot the Lakers out of the building by making 23 3-pointers, which is hard to overcome in today’s NBA. Tuesday featured massive seeding implications and Hachimura discussed the emotion in the locker room following a demoralizing loss.
“I mean, it was a tough game for us,” Hachimura said. “We were trying to figure out who’s gonna play or not tonight. And we, I think, as a team, we don’t have energy tonight starting from the from the beginning of the game. And I think we, as a team, we just didn’t bring it the way that we used to a couple games ago. We were rolling, we are playing together, but we didn’t do that tonight.”
Now missing Davis in back-to-back with the Warriors, it is clear that the Lakers are not the same team without him, especially on the defensive end. Hachimura detailed rebounding and rim protection as two areas in which they missed their All-Star center the most.
“I think the rebounding for sure,” he said. “On the rebound side, Golden State is a smaller team, but they are a really good rebounding team. So we kind of focus on that, I think we did a good job on the rebound side. But, I think the protecting the rim, when AD is on the court, like he is always behind us, protecting everything. … Especially this team, we have to take away something, and especially they are a three-point team so and then when we denied them, you know, of course, the rim are gonna be wide open, and there was nobody really protecting tonight, that kind of hurt us for sure.”
It is unfortunate timing for James and Davis to be in and out of the lineup as the regular season rounds out. But L.A. needs to win their final two games if they want to avoid the bottom half of the Play-In Tournament, so hopefully Hachimura and everyone else will be ready to bring it.
Rui Hachimura speaks on challenge of playing without LeBron James & Anthony Davis
The NBA is relentless and feels sorry for no one, and the Lakers are experiencing that right now. After some newfound success, things are starting to slip with their two stars suffering illness and nausea. Hachimura dove deeper into the challenges that present themselves when playing without James and Davis, who are obviously two irreplaceable players.
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